Death Belongs to Us

A site reader, Robert, wrote us a note containing this question:

… Maybe something that you can direct me to if you have covered it on your site, or if The lord has given you incite into it.

what does this mean?

“For all things belong to you …death … all things belong to you, 23and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God. ” 1 cor 3

Death belongs to us? Any insight?

I came to the Lord in late august of 2010.

almost two years later, i have learned so much…and i realize..i KNOW NOTHING. Its really great place to be actually. 🙂

Thank you Again and god Bless you all. 🙂 – Rob

Our reply:

Hi Robert,

No problem on taking the time you need to consider these things. Far better you do that than give up seeking the Truth. And praise God, He’s given you the faith and patience to receive revelation regarding your previous question. Wonderful! Walk in precious faith with obedience and you’ll be trusting in the living God and not in your knowledge.

“And if any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any one loves God, he has been known of Him” (1 Corinthians 8:2-3 MKJV).

That’s where it’s at for all who believe – faith and obedience, loving God, being His friend. That’s what He’s after. In this way He changes us into His image, from glory to glory, and God is glorified forever.

You ask:

“‘For all things belong to you …death … all things belong to you, 23and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.’ 1 cor 3

Death belongs to us? Any insight?”

When we are brought into life by faith in Christ, death no longer owns us as before:

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15 KJV).

There is an instantaneous change that occurs when we first receive and exercise faith:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, ‘He who hears My Word and believes on Him Who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death to life’” (John 5:24 MKJV).

Consider that through death, Jesus Christ has saved us. Without His death, we would be without hope. Furthermore, He holds the key to death, the Resurrection Power:

“And the Living One, and I became dead, and behold, I am alive for ever and ever, Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:18 MKJV).

Receiving His Spirit, we also have these keys and resurrection power through Him:

“Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you. As My Father has sent Me, even so I send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Of whomever sins you remit, they are remitted to them. Of whomever sins you retain, they are retained’” (John 20:21-23 MKJV).

The Lord uses death as a useful instrument for good. It is no longer a threat to those who believe on Him:

Revelation 2:20-23 MKJV
(20) But I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel to teach, she saying herself to be a prophetess, and to cause My servants to go astray, and to commit fornication, and to eat idol-sacrifices.
(21) And I gave her time that she might repent of her fornication, and she did not repent.
(22) Behold, I am throwing her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great affliction, unless they repent of their deeds.
(23) And I will kill her children with death. And all the churches will know that I am He Who searches the reins and hearts, and I will give to every one of you according to your works.

Death belongs to us. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any more struggles with sin after we first believe, but it does mean victory is assured in Christ. There’s a working out of our faith that culminates in a final victory over death:

“Do not at all fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the Devil will cast some of you into prison, so that you may be tried. And you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death” (Revelation 2:10-11 MKJV).

As believers we find that death works for us, not against, and we have nothing at all to fear from it. In this vein, the apostle Paul talks about how death works in his favor for himself and the rest of the Body of Christ:

2 Corinthians 4:11-18 MKJV
(11) For we who live are always being delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus might also be revealed in our body.
(12) So then death works in us, but life in you.
(13) For we, having the same spirit of faith (according as it is written, “I believed, and therefore I have spoken”); we also believed and therefore speak,
(14) knowing that He Who raised up the Lord Jesus shall also raise us up by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
(15) For all things are for your sake, so that the superabounding grace might be made to abound through the thanksgiving of the greater number, to the glory of God.
(16) For this cause we do not faint; but though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
(17) For the lightness of our present affliction works out for us a far more excellent eternal weight of glory,
(18) we not considering the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are not lasting, but the things which are not seen are everlasting.

Death by the cross is the way to life, granted to us by faith so we might manifest the Son of God. Doesn’t this mean death is ours?

“For I through the Law am dead to the Law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:19-20).

Wherever we are on the continuum of God’s work of salvation by faith, death is ours, working for us, and we are no longer working for it:

Ephesians 2:1-3 MKJV
(1) And He has made you alive, who were once dead in trespasses and sins,
(2) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience;
(3) among whom we also had our way of life in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.